I have deliberately chosen to be a bit arcane with my third book: Reggie by Lewis Baston. If you want to realise how conservative movements all over the world are exceptionalist in the same way that Republicans believe in American exceptionalism, then nothing could be better than reading histories of obscure British politicians. This is a book about Reginald Maudling, who was a very senior politician, singularly undynamic – so much so that when punched by a Member of Parliament over Bloody Sunday [the shooting in Northern Ireland of protesters by members of the British forces] because he was Home Secretary at the time, somebody shouted, ‘My God! She’s woken him up!’ Between 1990 and 1992, Finkelstein was the editor of Connexion, Britain's first Internet and data communications newspaper. Finkelstein joined The Times in August 2001 as part of the leader writing team and was Comment Editor from March 2004 to June 2008. He became Chief Leader Writer in June 2008. He began The Times blog Comment Central in September 2006. He is also a regular columnist in The Jewish Chronicle. His weekly football statistics column, the Fink Tank, began in 2002 and runs in The Times on Saturdays. It’s a departure for British politics, which spent decades transferring power between parties, but maintaining a centrist stance. The days of Blair, Major and Cameron feel like another age. So hurray for a book and a writer who reminds us, in a collection of his newspaper columns from The Times, that moderate, well-argued views are as important and powerful as emotive, passionately held tribalism.

Policy Exchange appoints David Frum as new chairman" (Press release). Policy Exchange. 19 September 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. , So, the idea which has gained currency, that Cameron sat down and studied the New Labour manual to modernise his party, is all very well but, in fact, the Conservative Party repeatedly adapts to gain power? Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad is a deeply moving, personal and at times horrifying memoir about Finkelstein’s parents’ experiences at the hands of the two genocidal dictators of the twentieth century. It is a story of persecution; survival; and the consequences of totalitarianism told with the almost unimaginable bravery of two ordinary families shining through. If anyone, even now, points to the similarities between communism and fascism, it is regarded as a rather crude thing to do.”In 2018 he became chairman of the new think-tank Onward, whose mission is to renew the centre right for the next generation. [17] Conservative Party [ edit ] When we look at history we regard as heroes those who fought and those who conquered, those who were martyrs for their point of view, those who set out on great adventures, those who built fine cathedrals,” he writes in the first column of the collection. “Yet I think it is a fine ambition to have been an executive for extra-wet strength tissues. In the history of mankind how many better jobs have there been?”

Working peerages announced" (Press release). Prime Minister's Office. 1 August 2013 . Retrieved 7 August 2020. This book has only just been written and therefore can’t be described as being in the pantheon of Conservative classics. But, as a modern policy book, it’s hard to beat. It’s an absolutely brilliant book. His basic theory is that all policy questions should be considered through the generational filter: that means booms and busts of population are absolutely critical, that the ties between generations are critical. His views on the ties between the generations are what make this a distinctly Conservative book. Eaton, George (18 May 2018). "Onward, the think tank on a mission to remake conservatism". New Statesman. London . Retrieved 27 August 2019. Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad is a deeply moving and powerful memoir about persecution, survival, love and loss, man's inhumanity, and the almost unimaginable bravery of two ordinary families.The funniest thing is that Oastler has ended up having his statue erected outside the shopping centre in Bradford, when he was against markets and consumerism.

If like Finkelstein’s mother’s family, for example, you’ve fled Berlin because it’s no longer safe to be Jewish there, and you’re in Amsterdam, living close to Anne Frank, once war breaks out, are you better off in the Netherlands or in Britain? Now we know the answer, but Finkelstein’s skilful use of dramatic irony helps us see that at the time, smart people could conclude that the Netherlands was the better place to be and so stayed put – with disastrous consequences. I’ve chosen a book about Richard Oastler, who was a radical figure in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was a Conservative and that’s why the book is called Tory Radical. He was one of the driving forces behind the Factory Acts. One of the central events in British history, in my view, took place in 1832 in Leeds during the election in which the forces supporting the Great Reform Act were celebrating the fact that the Bill had been passed. Meanwhile, the Tory radicals were out on the street protesting about the failure to improve factory conditions, and these supporters of what later became Lord Shaftesbury’s reforms and the supporters of the Great Reform Bill had a stand-up fight in the streets of Leeds. I think this is absolutely fascinating. Zatman, Alex (2012). "Shoah memories spur writer Daniel to seek truth and courage". Jewish Telegraph. Manchester.In 2011 he was awarded the " PSA 2011 Journalist of the Year Award". [21] It was announced at the beginning of August 2013 that Finkelstein was to be made a life peer. [22] He was created Baron Finkelstein, of Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow on 11 September 2013. [23] Today: after a harrowing journey across the Soviet Union, Daniel's father and grandmother find themselves in the freezing Siberian wastelands, trying to survive as slave labourers on a collective farm. A typical column finds connections between several seemingly random themes: “In just under 1,000 words I intend to link the suspension of an academic at the University of Leeds, the weight of an ox, the outcome of the 2002 football World Cup, the recent dissenting speeches of Stephen Byers and Alan Milburn and the state funding of political parties. And of course cakes, graphology and Denise Van Outen.” a b Silva, Rohan (4 June 2023). "Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finkelstein review – a family in peril". The Observer. London . Retrieved 4 June 2023.

Ramsden’s title, An Appetite for Power, reflects what he regards as the one consistent characteristic of Conservative organisation: an instinct for what people believe and a willingness to adapt to it; and he says the Conservative Party has done that over and over again, never remained adhering to some strict ideology for very long periods of time. And I think that’s a very adept reading of the Party, and one that is particularly interesting now. It was written during the long years of opposition before David Cameron became leader. John Ramsden recently died but he anticipated absolutely what the Conservative Party has now done. The Labour Party showed that kind of appetite for power under Tony Blair but normally Labour is much more ideological. Between 1997 and 2001 he was political adviser to the Leader of the Opposition William Hague and, together with George Osborne, Secretary to the Shadow Cabinet. The story of his mother and father’s early lives under, respectively, Hitler and Stalin, it is at once an epic tale on the scale of War and Peace, an intimate portrait of his family and its traumas and a book of compelling urgency, with a vital political message at its heart.Yes, let’s start with An Appetite for Power by John Ramsden. Actually, this one book is acting as a substitute for six. Longman has produced a fabulous history of the Conservative Party in six volumes, of which John Ramsden wrote three; and An Appetite for Power is a single volume drawn from that. The series is a stunningly detailed history, which starts with constituency organisation and the power structure inside the Conservative Party and moves on to ideas. As the Conservative Party is primarily an organisational rather than an ideological body, that is a very good way of studying it. One theme in Finkelstein’s work is the futility of intellectual reasoning in the face of rabid irrationality. From 1919 onwards, Finkelstein’s maternal grandfather, Alfred Wiener, worked tirelessly to use logic to combat antisemitism, writing pamphlets and speeches that, among other things, “attempted to expose the contradictions of antisemites who blamed Jews for capitalism while simultaneously characterising them as communists”. You’re made to understand how even deeply intelligent and politically attuned people were caught unawares by war and genocide Professor Ludwik Finkelstein". The Times. London. 2 September 2011 . Retrieved 29 March 2016. (subscription required) He believes Keir Starmer has “a good chance of succeeding” in his attempts to banish antisemites from the ranks of the Labour Party, “he is politically shrewd.” He’s glad for left-leaning Jewish friends that they are beginning to feel they can once again join Labour.